Nice to hear, although I recently moved out of there so I wish I was still around to stop by. I lived near both shops on the west side(although Ultimate moved) and both were overpriced IMO although the people were very friendly. Hopefully, that makes it easier for you to stay competitive while running a successful business. Best of luck in your endeavor. Assuming you do open in May, I'll stop by if I make it down for the WSOP in June.

Thanks again for all the support, please just let me know you are on the Blowout Boards if you stop in, I will give you a little better of a deal. A few other notes;

-my shop was a Barbeque place for ten years and a Thai Restaurant for about one year. It's been vacant since August, which is why I was able to work a better deal on my rent, he initially wanted $1.25 sq/ft. It has now been cleaned up and converted into a retail space.

-I have a very solid union job as a server at a steakhouse on the Strip. I will be keeping that job and working the shop in the mornings/afternoon and heading down the street to my serving job. Needless to say I will be exhausted, but I have an extremely cool boss that is supportive of my shop and has always been great about giving days off and early-outs so I can try to keep my sanity. When the shop starts to take off and see good profits, I will quit my serving job, hoping the shop sees solid profits after 4-6 months and I will never have to wait another table again. I plan on hiring a few employees, and if I can pay them $10-$13 per hour, then for every hour I work at my steakhouse, I can pay off three to four hours of their pay.

-The South Point gets completely crazy when the Rodeo is in town, and apparently so does the shopping center I am in. The Dry Cleaner owner said they make enough in the month that the Rodeo is in town to pay their rent for the entire year. I haven't really figured out how to capitalize on this yet; what kind of colletibles do Cowboys buy? If you guys have any thoughts on this, PLMK

Congratulations, I wish I was going to Vegas a few weeks later now, I'll be there from the 18th through the 20th of April. Maybe I'll make it back before long, especially if I hit it big!

For a fellow A's fan, everything is always 50% off (J/K). I probably will have a few of my old A's Bobble heads on my desk up front in the store for good luck. I was at every home Playoff game in the early 2000's (including the game with The Flip) until I moved from Santa Clara to Vegas in late 2002. Not sure how close I will be to opening at the time you are in town, but shoot me a PM around that time and I will probably be finalizing fixtures and ordering of product, you can come in if you like and be my first customer ever! Warning: the shop probably won't look too pretty at that time, so try not to hold it against me.

Yeah, I was planning on carrying a little MTG to start out, drop a few hundred dollars on it to see where it goes. Do unopened boxes of MTG tend to go up over time, or do they drop right when the next version comes out? I see some shops that don't hold tourneys still have about five or six different versions of unopened product and then one display case full of singles in the $1 to $50 range, is there a common price guide (online or print) that can price them out properly for a retail storefront like myself? I do have a backroom and a second bathroom that I will be using for storage, so I could feasibly hold some tournaments if I just move a few racks to the backroom, so I won't rule out hosting some of them.

I've been collecting baseball and MTG cards since the early '90s. To answer your question, boxes of MTG almost always go WAY up in value over time.

For example, each booster box (36 packs) of a new MTG set typically sells for about $90-$100 at release (through the biggest online distributors).

Looking back at some of the sets that came out within the last few years, here are some prices/box now:

I will definitely have to check the new shop out when it opens up. I used to visit Baseball Card Heaven pretty frequently when I was younger with a friend of mine. That was the one on Flamingo and Torrey Pines, right? I can say without any doubt that that was the best card shop I've ever visited and purchased from.

I will definitely have to check the new shop out when it opens up. I used to visit Baseball Card Heaven pretty frequently when I was younger with a friend of mine. That was the one on Flamingo and Torrey Pines, right? I can say without any doubt that that was the best card shop I've ever visited and purchased from.

Thanks for the kind words, and although it wasn't the biggest or most organized shop in the world, I was very proud of Baseball Card Heaven and its success. I actually owned it when it was on Maryland and Flamingo, I sold it to Dan, Paul, and Brad; they were the owners when it was on Torrey Pines and Flamingo, but definitely with the same feel to it. While I may not have the best organizational skills or cleanliness, I do always try to have the best prices and the hottest cards. I am a wheeler and dealer on just about anything. I try to buy it at the right price, and rather than marking a card up to $100 to maximize my profit on it and see it sit in the display case for a year before it sells, I try to sell it for $60 and see it sold in five days; just the way I do things.

If any of you can, please "Like" my new facebook page for the shop, it's under Stripside Comics and Sportscards. I added some cool photos of stuff I have with some horribly corny comments to them, such as this classic over a photo of some Yu Darvish graded rookies:

Did you hear the latest breaking news? Soulja Boy was found murdered. Do you know who did it? Yuuuuuuuu!!!!

(I know, I'm a dork. Who else would open a Comic and Card shop though?)

Thanks for the kind words, and although it wasn't the biggest or most organized shop in the world, I was very proud of Baseball Card Heaven and its success. I actually owned it when it was on Maryland and Flamingo, I sold it to Dan, Paul, and Brad; they were the owners when it was on Torrey Pines and Flamingo, but definitely with the same feel to it. While I may not have the best organizational skills or cleanliness, I do always try to have the best prices and the hottest cards. I am a wheeler and dealer on just about anything. I try to buy it at the right price, and rather than marking a card up to $100 to maximize my profit on it and see it sit in the display case for a year before it sells, I try to sell it for $60 and see it sold in five days; just the way I do things.

If any of you can, please "Like" my new facebook page for the shop, it's under Stripside Comics and Sportscards. I added some cool photos of stuff I have with some horribly corny comments to them, such as this classic over a photo of some Yu Darvish graded rookies:

Did you hear the latest breaking news? Soulja Boy was found murdered. Do you know who did it? Yuuuuuuuu!!!!

(I know, I'm a dork. Who else would open a Comic and Card shop though?)

Oh, okay. I remember visiting the shop once when it was on Maryland and Flamingo. It's a good thing the shop isn't there anymore or else I'd be skipping too many classes at UNLV and spending entirely too much money haha.

The other location, on Torrey Pines, was about a mile and a half away from my house so I tried getting there whenever possible. They definitely did make people feel at home and welcomed there. It was a very comfortable atmosphere in which you could seemingly strike up a conversation with anyone. As far as the prices were, couldn't beat them anywhere in town whether it was at the shop or one of the shows at the Galleria.

Congratulations on opening the new shop. I really look forward to checking it out.

For a fellow A's fan, everything is always 50% off (J/K). I probably will have a few of my old A's Bobble heads on my desk up front in the store for good luck. I was at every home Playoff game in the early 2000's (including the game with The Flip) until I moved from Santa Clara to Vegas in late 2002. Not sure how close I will be to opening at the time you are in town, but shoot me a PM around that time and I will probably be finalizing fixtures and ordering of product, you can come in if you like and be my first customer ever! Warning: the shop probably won't look too pretty at that time, so try not to hold it against me.

I would actually be honored, I'd love to see the progress. I'll also be driving, so I'll have my car there, so it will be an easy stop if we can get our times aligned

Good Luck, MTG/Pokemon/YugiOh are HUGE money makers if you have significant clientele in the 10-24 age range (up to 40 for MTG).

Agreed. If you hope to stay 'alive' you HAVE to sell MTG. Especially if there are that many other sportscard shops and comic shops in the area. Folks loyal to other stores won't just show up because you now sell both.. Sports Card buyers and comic buyers are, for the most part, 2 very separate sets of consumers.

Thanks again for all the support, please just let me know you are on the Blowout Boards if you stop in, I will give you a little better of a deal. A few other notes;

-my shop was a Barbeque place for ten years and a Thai Restaurant for about one year. It's been vacant since August, which is why I was able to work a better deal on my rent, he initially wanted $1.25 sq/ft. It has now been cleaned up and converted into a retail space.

-I have a very solid union job as a server at a steakhouse on the Strip. I will be keeping that job and working the shop in the mornings/afternoon and heading down the street to my serving job. Needless to say I will be exhausted, but I have an extremely cool boss that is supportive of my shop and has always been great about giving days off and early-outs so I can try to keep my sanity. When the shop starts to take off and see good profits, I will quit my serving job, hoping the shop sees solid profits after 4-6 months and I will never have to wait another table again. I plan on hiring a few employees, and if I can pay them $10-$13 per hour, then for every hour I work at my steakhouse, I can pay off three to four hours of their pay.

-The South Point gets completely crazy when the Rodeo is in town, and apparently so does the shopping center I am in. The Dry Cleaner owner said they make enough in the month that the Rodeo is in town to pay their rent for the entire year. I haven't really figured out how to capitalize on this yet; what kind of colletibles do Cowboys buy? If you guys have any thoughts on this, PLMK

Your server job is union? Now that's interesting. They closed down The Range at Harrah's and we're pretty pissed off. What steakhouse do you work at? We usually eat at one or two nice restaurants when we are in Vegas and then buffet it and cheap it out the rest of the way.

Your server job is union? Now that's interesting. They closed down The Range at Harrah's and we're pretty pissed off. What steakhouse do you work at? We usually eat at one or two nice restaurants when we are in Vegas and then buffet it and cheap it out the rest of the way.

The majority of the restaurants in casinos are union, nice hourly and great benefits. I'm at Center Cut Steakhouse at the Flamingo, both our chef and Sommelier are from the Range, plus we use better meat and produce than they did. Let me know when you come into town and what night you would want to come in, I can hook up a few things.

The majority of the restaurants in casinos are union, nice hourly and great benefits. I'm at Center Cut Steakhouse at the Flamingo, both our chef and Sommelier are from the Range, plus we use better meat and produce than they did. Let me know when you come into town and what night you would want to come in, I can hook up a few things.

We're staying at the Flamingo this time. We'll be in town from Saturday October 12 through Friday October 18 I guess it is.

That is definite. Rooms already booked. We should have a car so I'd love to come down and check out the store. And if you have any kinds of discounts, coupons, etc, we're not too proud to accept!!!

At the concert at The Joint at the Hard Rock; Blue Album in its entirety followed by Pinkerton in its entirety. Too easy of a pick for best concert ever, if anyone wants me to send them any of my crappy iPhone videos from the show, let me know, but you will have to put up with horrible drunken singing of me and my friend below.

Just let me know if any of you guys want to come to the Steakhouse, I can pull a few tricks to save you guys some money, not sure if I'll still be working there in October, the goal is for the shop to be doing well enough that I won't be there still, but we'll see. I can still get friends to hook you up that work there.

Let me just ad that I was on the PSA Boards back in 2003 when I opened my first store, Baseball Card Heaven. When I announced I would be opening, I would say I had forty responses, and about eight of them were along the lines of I was making a big mistake, I'm gonna fail, etc. I have posted most of the same information about this opening on the Blowout Baseball Board, Blowout ComicBookJunkie Board, and CGC General Baord; I probably have about 75 responses, and all have been 100% positive and supportive. Thank you guys all for that, there will be some free contest give-a-ways as a Thank You, keep an eye out.

At the concert at The Joint at the Hard Rock; Blue Album in its entirety followed by Pinkerton in its entirety. Too easy of a pick for best concert ever, if anyone wants me to send them any of my crappy iPhone videos from the show, let me know, but you will have to put up with horrible drunken singing of me and my friend below.

Just let me know if any of you guys want to come to the Steakhouse, I can pull a few tricks to save you guys some money, not sure if I'll still be working there in October, the goal is for the shop to be doing well enough that I won't be there still, but we'll see. I can still get friends to hook you up that work there.

Let me just ad that I was on the PSA Boards back in 2003 when I opened my first store, Baseball Card Heaven. When I announced I would be opening, I would say I had forty responses, and about eight of them were along the lines of I was making a big mistake, I'm gonna fail, etc. I have posted most of the same information about this opening on the Blowout Baseball Board, Blowout ComicBookJunkie Board, and CGC General Baord; I probably have about 75 responses, and all have been 100% positive and supportive. Thank you guys all for that, there will be some free contest give-a-ways as a Thank You, keep an eye out.

Thanks,
Jason

My recommendation would be to have her work full time in the store and you'll need a revolving door!